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Feds seek Supreme Court review of cell-phone search ruling

Courts are struggling mightily with how to apply Fourth Amendment principles to the search of electronic devices. One issue is whether police can search a cell phone found on an arrestee’s person without a warrant, pursuant to the search-incident-to-arrest exception to the warrant requirement. As we reported earlier this year, the First Circuit in U.S. v. Wurie created a “bright-line rule” holding that warrantless searches of cell phones can never be justified by the search-incident-to-arrest exception. The Department of Justice has now asked the Supreme Court to review the case, arguing that Wurie runs counter to longstanding high court precedent and creates a conflict with the rulings of other circuits and state courts. The odds seem good that the Court will take the case, meaning this could present one of the rare opportunities for the Supremes to dip their toes into the difficult constitutional issues surrounding searches of electronic devices. And what they say could have implications far beyond searches of arrestees’ cell phones.